The art of surveying involves the determination of unknown positions, surfaces or volumes of objects using measurements of angles and distances. For this purpose, a surveying instrument may comprise an electronic distance measuring device (EDM) which may be integrated in a so-called total station. A distance measuring total station combines electronic, optical and computer techniques and may furthermore be provided with a computer or control unit with writable information for controlling the measurements to be performed and for storing data obtained during the measurements.
Further, for establishing a land map or the appearance of a target such as a building or a wall of a building, it may often be desirable to perform a scan of the surveyed target or work site. For such applications, a distance measuring total station may be implemented as a geodetic scanner for determining the appearance of the target based on the measurements of distances to positions of interest at the surface of the target. Such a geodetic scanner may register the surface or volume of the target.
A difficulty with such geodetic scanners is to provide a sufficiently high measuring rate while still providing reliable measurements.